How to Add Custom Characters to Your Blog Post

This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series Baby Boomers and Social Bookmarking Can You Digg it?

Have you ever wanted to add a custom character to your blog post. You know one of those funny looking symbols that you just cannot find on your keyboard?

Well there is a button on the tool bar that will make it real easy. Let’s assume you want to create a copyright symbol.  This is what you do. Continue reading

Baby Boomer Blogs That Motivate You to Blog-Baby Boomer Baloney

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Baby Boomer Blogs that Motivate You to Blog

Have you ever visited a blog that made you want to post to your own blog? Well, I have. And today I am encouraging you to visit a blog called Baby Boomer Baloney. Now, the main motivation for me is the fact that the author has a DAILY blog post.  His posts range from inspirational to insightful.

Do you know of other baby boomer blogs that motivate you to blog? Let me know.

Is Blogging on Labor Day Really Labor? 5 Types of Bloggers Say NO

There are, based on my observation, three types of bloggers that will blog on Labor Day.

Blogger Type #1

The Money Maker

Now this blogger has systems in place on their blogs. They have affiliates, ads, and articles that provide great content. They are blogging to send more traffic to their sites so that folks will buy and or promote their stuff. Even if they are on a cruise they probably set their blog to auto posting for the holiday. Not only do they make money in the sleep but while they are deep in conversation at a party.

Blogger Type 2

The Therapeutic Blogger

This blogger gets rid of stress by blogging. They may share the drama of the week and how it was resolved. Or they may rant about an injustice. In addition, they can vent their vibes about a current event.

Blogger Type #3

The Social Event Blogger

Before the day is over this blogger will share pictures and people connections about the happenings on this day. It could be a trip to the mall for sales or a great movie and dinner details.

Blogger Type #4

The Back To School Blogger

This blogger is sharing the excitement, extra duties, or encouragement for an upcoming school year. May include teachers who are setting up new blogs for the school year aimed at peers or students.

Blogger Type #5

The Caregiver Blogger

This blogger may share tips for other caregivers about resources or recent events related to caregiving. Since care giving seldom gets a holiday these bloggers rarely refrain from blogging when they can.

Regardless of the blog type many folks enjoy reading blogs on a Labor Day  as much as they enjoy watching the TV marathons.

Did I miss anyone?

So You Want to Do Niche Blogging?

Many of you already know about niche blogging. It is when you decide ahead of time what you are going to blog about. Except with niche blogging it is very focused on one topic. For example, if you are going to blog about blogging that is a broad  niche. But if you narrow it to  blogging for money then you are blogging about that niche.

I teach folks in my blogging class to take a good amount of time deciding on the area they are going to blog about.  It is much like setting a goal. You try to be as specific as possible and refer to it often to see if you are on target.

This morning I read an article about niche marketing that had a very interesting perspective. These marketing gurus felt that you should go broad then narrow when deciding on a niche. For example, if you are thinking about blogging on gardening then you would search on the word gardening with different variations. They could include “rose gardening” “winter gardening” etc.

The key point the article made was to look at the word “gardening” and start with that then go deeper. My summary “go wide then deep and decide.”

I strongly suggest using the free Google keyword tool.  When you want to do more extensive searches you can pay for a tool. But right now just go to Google and in the search box key in the words “Google keyword tool”.

The other thing it shows are the keywords “tags” you can use when you produce a blog post.If you are on a WordPress platform, there is a section on the dashboard that always allows you to key in tags. That is the same thing as keywords. The more relevant they are  to your post the better.

The cool thing about us baby boomers is that we have a broad area of interests based on our broad area of expertise and experience. That can make for some great blogging. What do you think?

If you want me to do a tutorial on using the free keyword tool with some pictures let me know.